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TURKEY PROCESSOR'S
TOWN EMBRACING
IMMIGRANT WORKERS
In a society where so many U.S.
citizens complain about immigrants
taking American jobs - even when
they don't want those jobs themselves - it was refreshing to see a
PBS report on how that certainly
does not appear to be the case in
Huron, South Dakota.
Huron, a relatively small city of
about 13,000 people, is the home
of the Dakota Provisions turkey
processing plant. According to the
PBS segment, as many as 600 of the
plant's workers are Karen, an ethnic
minority group from Myanmar. In
addition, about 16 percent of the
employees are from Latin American
countries.
"Without the Karen people,
we probably would not be able to
run the turkey plant," said Mark
Heuston, human resources director
for Dakota Provisions. "We'd definitely be far short of people to run
the facility. The Karen came here
for exactly the same reasons that our
ancestors came here, and that's to
be free."
Heuston, who began recruiting the refugees from Myanmar
in 2007, said those workers are
reliable and have helped Dakota
Provisions have a low employee
turnover rate. Dakota Provisions'
annual turnover rate is approximately 15-20 percent, which
Heuston said is "four of five times
less than the national average for
the meat-packing plants."
One way the community has
helped is by hiring English as a
second language (ESL) instructors
for every grade within the school
system.
And one way the community
has shown its welcoming side is by
establishing a community garden,
which gives the newcomers and
longtime Huron residents a chance
to get to know and understand each
other better. ■
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www.WATTAgNet.com ❙ August 2016

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